


Smash

by celeste9



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Teambuilding, Trapped, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-15 02:37:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4589847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He wants you to Hulk out." Natasha fought to keep her voice even, to stop her heart from racing. She wasn't afraid, she wouldn't be afraid, and she damn well wouldn't let Bruce see her be afraid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smash

**Author's Note:**

> For deinonychus_1's prompt of Bruce trapped with another Avenger, trying to keep from turning into the Hulk, filling the 'trapped together' square on my hc_bingo card. Set after the first Avengers movie, though please forget momentarily that Loki is supposed to be in a cell on Asgard at this time. *g*

“Don’t freak out,” Natasha said, when she saw Bruce stir, opening his eyes and obviously trying to figure out where he was.

“Well, that makes me feel just great about the situation,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “I’m not concerned at all now.”

“Things are kinda bad. So just don’t… freak out. No turning green, okay?”

“Wasn’t planning on it. Where are we?”

“A cell, as far as I can tell.”

But no cell like any Natasha had ever seen before. The last thing she remembered before waking up here was Loki, and that probably was explanation enough. He must have magicked them somewhere, somewhere away from help and where he could keep them for whatever plan he had in store.

Damn Loki. Being Thor’s brother would not make Natasha even the least bit sorry when she finally wrung his skinny neck.

“There isn’t a door,” Bruce observed, getting up to walk around the perimeter.

“Not one we can see, anyway.” Natasha had tried to find a way out but hadn’t been able to so much as feel a seam in the walls. The cell was bare and empty and as good as impenetrable.

For the moment, at least. Natasha wasn’t the sort to give up just because a situation appeared impossible. ‘Impossible’ wasn’t something that Natasha accepted. Impossible was only what things seemed until you found a way through.

“Do you think he’s watching us?” she asked. There were no cameras that she could see, and Natasha would know a two-way mirror when she saw one, but she had little doubt that Loki could see his way into anything he wanted.

“Probably.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“It’s an experiment,” Bruce said.

Natasha looked at him. “What?”

“This. Us. We’re the rats in the maze and he’s watching to see what we’ll do.”

“He wants you to Hulk out.” Natasha fought to keep her voice even, to stop her heart from racing. She wasn’t afraid, she wouldn’t be afraid, and she damn well wouldn’t let Bruce see her be afraid.

“Yes.”

“Well, we’ll just have to disappoint him.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Too bad Thor’s not here. Smashing him around a bit always makes the Hulk feel better, doesn’t it?”

Bruce’s smile was weak. “Seems to. So it’s probably best he doesn’t make an appearance. No available invulnerable gods to cheer him up.”

“Good, we’re on the same page.”

“And Loki?”

“What about him?”

“You don’t really think he’s going to be content to let us sit here nicely, do you?”

Natasha certainly didn’t. If the situation didn’t escalate on its own, Loki would make it. She knew that, and Bruce surely knew it, too.

Had Loki wanted Natasha specifically to be locked in here with Bruce? Had it been more than a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Given Loki’s particular brand of mischief, that seemed likely. He had underestimated her before and it seemed he still thought her weak and exploitable.

Never mind. Natasha thrived on the underestimation of her opponents. It made them easier to outwit and to beat when they saw nothing but a small, fragile woman, when they thought of her as a breakable china doll with a pretty face who didn’t belong in a world of men.

Natasha always proved them wrong.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, all right?” she said. “I’ve had a look around but maybe you can see something I didn’t.”

Obligingly enough, but clearly knowing Natasha was trying to distract him, Bruce began moving again, circling the cell and examining it in earnest. “The Other Guy might be able to break his way out of here.”

“Yeah, and the Other Guy also might break his way through me.”

“Fair enough.”

Natasha had been half-joking, but Bruce’s tone made it clear he wasn’t. “You don’t think he acknowledges me as his teammate?”

Bruce shrugged. “You willing to risk it?”

She wasn’t, but Bruce didn’t need to know that. “We’ve fought together. He’s never tried to hurt me.”

Not since the helicarrier, anyway, but a lot of things had happened that day that Natasha would prefer not to think about.

“He’s never been trapped in an enclosed space with you before, either.”

That was what this was really about, Natasha realized. Bruce didn’t trust the Other Guy, and he didn’t trust himself. Maybe he didn’t trust her, either, didn’t trust her not to panic, not to make things worse. She wondered if Bruce trusted anyone at all in this world.

That was no way to live, and Natasha knew that from experience. She had spent a long time on her own, relying on no one but herself. It was lonely and it was exhausting. Now she could count the number of people she truly trusted on one hand, but those people who had earned it? She didn’t know what she would do if she lost them.

Lost any more of them, actually. Coulson’s absence from her life (his death, say it, his death) still felt like a piece of her that was missing, a part of her being she could never recover.

Bruce, the other Avengers, they felt like people she could make hers, too. It hurt a little that maybe Bruce didn’t feel the same way about her.

“What do you think he’ll do to me?”

“I don’t like to think about it.”

Natasha didn’t either, but that didn’t matter. “Bruce, why do you think the Other Guy does what he does?”

“Because he’s angry. That’s all he knows.”

“No. It’s because he’s afraid.”

Bruce stopped skimming his hands over the walls and started watching her instead, his features creased with puzzlement and curiosity. He waited for her to elaborate.

“Can you imagine what it’s like to be flung into a world you don’t entirely understand, only to be met with fear and anger and hatred? The world constantly shooting at you, trying to kill you? It’s no wonder he lashes out.”

“Are you seriously making excuses for him?”

“Like it or not, he’s part of you, and you need to accept that.”

“Easy for you to say. You haven’t got a monster inside you.”

_Want to bet?_ Natasha wanted to say. But not yet. Not until she was ready to trust him the way she thought she could, and he was ready to do the same for her. 

And preferably not when there was most likely a deranged alien god eating up their every word.

“The Other Guy has no reason to fear me,” Natasha went on. “Why should he? What am I going to do to him? Hell, I don’t even have my gun anymore.” Loki saw to that.

“All the more reason to keep him away from you. You have no defense.”

“I have myself,” Natasha said, because that was all she ever needed. Still, she understood the point Bruce was making. It would be a lie if she said she wasn’t afraid of the Hulk, someone who couldn’t be reasoned with nor played, someone impervious to Natasha’s skillset. He seemed to understand nothing but violence.

That, though, was perhaps not his fault. He had never known anything but violence.

“Don’t you see that that’s the problem?” Bruce was saying, his voice rising along with his color. He was agitated, starting to panic, and maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea.

“Calm down,” Natasha said.

“I am calm! I’m fucking calm! I’m trapped in a cage with someone the Other Guy could crush like a twig, only she doesn’t seem to believe that’s even a possibility, so of course I’m fucking calm!” He seemed to realize what he was doing and visibly took a breath, then another, but it made little difference.

It felt warm, warmer than it had, to the point of being uncomfortable. Natasha suspected Loki had begun playing tricks, tiring of how long it was taking for things to progress.

“Bruce, Bruce, look at me,” Natasha said, and fuck, she was terrified, she couldn’t remember ever being this scared, this out of control, because this wasn’t something she could fight, and she didn’t think it was something she could stop. The only one who could stop Bruce from turning was Bruce himself, and she was fooling herself if she thought anything she said could make a damn bit of difference.

Not that that stopped her from trying.

Natasha held Bruce’s shoulders when all she wanted to do was run (there was nowhere to run to) and she looked in Bruce’s eyes (they were green, shit, they were green) when she wanted to be looking at anything else but that.

“You are the one in control,” she said. “ _You_. Not him, you. Everything is going to be fine. You and me, we’re going to walk out of this together. You know what this is? This is team bonding, it’s a team bonding experience. Fury would be thrilled. You and me, getting to know each other, working together, overcoming obstacles.”

“I thought,” Bruce said, sweat dripping down his face, “I thought he was the Avenger.”

“You both are. Sure, he’s great in a fight, but can he out-science Tony Stark?”

“Never asked.”

Natasha laughed more out of surprise than anything. “Tell me, are you gonna give that little bitch Loki the satisfaction of seeing you give in so easily?”

It took a few moments for Bruce to respond, his breathing coming in gasps that gradually slowed back down. “No. Not until he shows his face so the Other Guy can smash it in. He liked that.”

Bruce’s eyes were brown, warm, glorious brown.

“Yeah,” Natasha said. “Yeah, me, too.”

Bruce slid back down to the floor, his back pressed against the wall, rubbing his temples. He looked exhausted, weary and stressed and probably still trying his damnedest to keep his other half at bay.

“Was that you or me?” Natasha asked. “I’m just curious if I can add Hulk monitor to my list of job skills.”

“A bit of both of us, I think.”

“Works for me.”

“They did tell me you’re a master of manipulation.”

“What can I say? I’m a people person.”

“I wasn’t so good with people even before I started turning green and throwing them around,” Bruce admitted wryly.

“You do choose to spend your free time with Tony Stark.”

“We speak the same language.”

“At least someone does.” Natasha sat down beside Bruce, six inches of space between them. “Do you know why Barton and I make such a good team?”

The pause before Bruce answered was long enough for Natasha to know he was confused by what must have seemed an abrupt change of topic. “Because you’re both scary, badass superspies?”

“I thought that was a given so I wasn’t gonna mention it. I was going to say that it’s because we trust each other absolutely.”

“You’ve known each other a long time.”

“We have. Trust takes time and effort, but it has to start somewhere. I only agreed to be a part of the Avengers Initiative because Nick Fury asked me to.”

Bruce didn’t interrupt but Natasha could feel him watching her, listening intently.

She continued, “New York... It made me see why Fury wanted this to work. The thing is, though, it only works if we trust each other the way Clint and I do. All of us. We need to have each other’s backs without thinking, so each of us can do our job without worrying. We need to trust that we all know what we’re doing, trust that the right decisions will get made and that actions will get followed through to the proper conclusions.”

Intentionally, Natasha switched her pronouns. “You need to trust that I will make the right call, even if you don’t agree with it. You need to trust that I can handle myself, just as I need to trust you to do the same.”

“Trusting people is not one of my strong points.”

“Then we have something in common.”

Bruce met Natasha’s eyes, guarded still but with a… a promise, almost. A promise that he was genuinely listening to what Natasha was saying, a promise that he wanted to be open with her, or at least he wanted to try.

Natasha’s sharp ears picked up a sound seconds before a door appeared where there had definitely not been a door before. She sprang to her feet, hands automatically reaching for the guns she didn’t have. Instead she readied herself for a fight, Bruce still on the floor, his fists clenched so hard his knuckles had turned white.

Better white than green.

He was still trying to keep control. Natasha wasn’t entirely certain if she was comforted or frightened by the knowledge that if something came through that door that she couldn’t handle, the Hulk was only the snap of Bruce’s temper away.

It was an Asgardian who stepped through the door, but not the Asgardian Natasha had been expecting.

“My friends,” Thor said, and Natasha thought she’d never been so happy to see his beautiful face before. “I am glad to see you safe; I feared my brother may have harmed you.”

“No worse for wear,” Natasha said. She held out her hand for Bruce to take, unable to avoid noticing the overwhelming rush of relief on his face. She thought he must have been even more afraid than she had been. How much of his life did he spend in fear, trying to keep the anger in check?

Bruce hesitated before clasping her hand and accepting her assistance.

Face to face, Natasha smiled at him and said, “Look, Thor came after all. The Other Guy would have been all set.”

“Hulk smash,” Bruce said, with a tiny shy smile tugging at his mouth.

_Yes,_ Natasha thought. There was something about this goofball she liked.

**_End_ **


End file.
